Best Cinematic Trailers of E3 2012

At E3 2012, as with any year, there were plenty of trailers on tap. Dating back to the week before the event, trailers began to flood the web that promoted properties we already knew were in the pipeline and also revealed some new IPs we didn’t even know were in development. Some trailers were comprised primarily of gameplay footage while others were completely pre-rendered.

It’s easy to see the advantage of a gameplay trailer, but delivering a high quality CG trailer is just as challenging. The bar for impressive visuals and storytelling has been set pretty high over the past years, but somehow E3 2012 was able to deliver some real standouts so, without further ado, here are our Top 5 cinematic trailers of E3 2012:

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Trailers for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron thus far, while not comprised of any gameplay footage, have set the scene for one of the most epic throw downs between the Autobots and Decepticons ever created. Earlier trailers established the game’s fitting subtitle, but the trailer released during E3 revealed that the Autobots might be down, but they certainly aren’t out.

It would have been hard for any developer to top the reveal of robotic dinosaurs as playable characters, but not High Moon Studios — for them this is just one segment of an extremely rich Transformers universe. Rather than remain content in the reveal of the Dinobots, High Moon took player’s expectations and completely shattered them by showcasing Metroplex, the city-sized Autobot seen in the trailer’s climax.